The present invention relates to a computer integrated event management system designed for use by hotels and entertainment producers in hotels and other facilities in which banquets, meetings, shows, and other programs are held. Providers of decor can also use the present invention.
In the meeting planning business, events, such as an annual meetings, are usually booked at hotels having conference and other meeting facilities. In addition, rooms for housing meeting attendees are also booked. Due to the many tens of thousands of such meetings which are held worldwide every year, hotels and other facilities having such meeting capabilities are often asked to prepare hundreds, if not thousands, of different proposals and bids every year. The preparation of such proposals and bids, up until now, has been a time-consuming and expensive process in terms of the cost and number of personnel to prepare such bids and proposals. Also, an extended lead time is often required within which to respond to such requests for bids and proposals from potential clients.
In addition, since in many instances the client requesting the bid or proposal is not certain as to the type of room within which to hold the event, nor the manner in which the room is to be laid out, it is also often desirable to provide the client with a number of different scenarios which would accommodate the client's planned meetings. The preparation of drawings depicting the different layouts possible for meeting the client's criteria for the planned meetings likewise requires a tremendous amount of manual work and, therefore, time and expense.
After a client has decided to book an event or meeting at a certain hotel or other facility, the final layout of each of the rooms which will be utilized for the client's event must be finalized. Based upon the layout of each of the rooms, which is, of course, dependent upon, among other things, the number of attendees, the type of meals, if any, to be served, the type and number of speakers or entertainment to be present at various times during each of the meetings, etc., various inventory requirements must be met. Such inventory requirements include, among other items, the number and type of chairs, the number and type of tables, the size of any dance floor, the size of any stage, the number and types of podiums, stage modules, and followspot towers needed, as well as, for example, any special requirements, such as a movie screen or overhead projector. Also, it is necessary to ensure that the facility at which the meetings are to be held will have an adequate number of each of the inventory items required for each of the meetings being held at that facility at that time, as well as an adequate number of waiters and housemen for setting up and resetting the rooms.
As discussed above, it should be apparent that the present process for event planning and the implementation of the event, from the sales proposal to the contract to selecting the appropriate space and allocating the required convention service inventory to generating the event contract (EC) and updating the room layout to finally providing for an efficiently generated and implemented menu together with labor management for food ordering, is primarily performed manually with great inefficiencies. For example, it is difficult to manage and keep track of how much lettuce needs to be ordered for salads which will be served during meals which occur during the planned meetings, as well as to efficiently order and control the costs for both the food to be consumed during such meals and the labor for producing and serving such meals.
The present invention overcomes the foregoing deficiencies and other problems by providing a computerized, fully integrated, networkable and relational database system which allows all members of the facility's team involved in the life cycle of an event to work together from a common system with a minimum amount of training. The present invention provides a complete event management system that encompasses the entire process of event planning and implementation. Beginning from the sales proposal, the present invention allows the easy generation of two-dimensional and three-dimensional layouts and animations, the issuance of the contract, selecting from the appropriate space and allocating the required convention service inventory in order to generate the event contract, as well as updating the room layout. The present invention also provides for the necessary functions for implementing the event, from efficient menu and labor management to improved food ordering and cost management and from the ordering of food to analyzing room usage.
The present invention also allows the user to automatically generate and print room layouts in less time than that required to make a simple hand sketch. Each of the layouts is drawn to an exact scale so that there is no guesswork regarding how much space is left in the room or how many tables can be added. Since every element in the drawings can be controlled by the user, changes can be made to each event drawing, which are instantaneously reflected in the fully relational database. That serves to automatically update the information stored in the system relating to other functions, such as updating ECs, the available inventory and guest seating arrangements.
The present invention also allows for the easy creation of ECs, and, since the data in the ECs is tied to a fully relational database, each EC can be totalled individually, checked for accuracy, totalled as a group, and managed collectively far more efficiently than known in the prior art. Any changes made to the original event proposal are automatically reflected in the ECs which are implemented to effectuate the proposal, thus reducing the possibility of clerical errors. Completely new ECs can be easily generated by the user and can be readily revised as required. Each update of an EC displays a dated notice in order to ensure proper communication and billing.